A Court of Sunflowers and Stardust

•chapter 39•

"Unleash yourself"

Control

~

My breathing was painful, everything was painful. The thoughts were swirled through my mind we're making my heart beat too quick for my body.

My mother is alive?

She went off The Night Court to talk in depth, but I had no interest in talking. The world was still dying, whether she's alive or not. I could still feel it, deep in my soul.

But there was something else deep in my soul, something that had been dormant and was now awakening. Something I'd never felt before, something powerful.

I stormed into the mountains, needing to be alone, needing to think. But I felt a crushing weight on my chest, as if I was being suffocated. I felt every pulse in my body, felt every wave of blood, felt the adrenaline rushing through my veins.

Whatever was asleep inside my mind, opened an eye, and yawned.

I fell to my knees in a bundle of snow, feeling my heart getting faster and faster, my breathing becoming more ragged, and my mind swirling and thumping.

"Do you feel that, Acacia? Your power exceeds more than you ever imagined."

I jumped nearly out of my skin, as I twirled and spotted the man I'd been trying so desperately to find.

"Alakai. How long- have you been here?" I breathed, wondering whether he knew if she was still alive.

However he looked calm, too calm if he had of overheard the conversation in the forest.

"I felt your presence in the mountains and came to pay you a long awaited visit. I'm quite irritated you nearly blew me up, you know." He grinned slightly, his eyes twinkling. "But your power is awakening now, so I have no reason to worry."

"What?" I narrowed my eyes, trying to brain storm ways of trapping him without making it look obvious on my face.

"When you were a small child, we knew that the depths of your power were nearly never-ending. You would be able to compete with the most powerful man in Prythian, and return unscathed, if only you unleashed yourself." He spoke, walking closer towards me, dressed in a dark tunic that enunciated his pale hair.

Something about what he said sparked a memory of when I was a young girl. "Dad always told me to not use my power often, he always said it's best if I learned to fight in combat."

Alakai smiled, and a part of my heart cracked at the fact our mother was alive and he had no idea, he still thought he'd killed her. Who am I to keep that from him? Would this be a perfect trap? "That's because using your power too often, or being in touch with it, will awaken that little beastling inside."

He poked my chest, and I blinked. "I've been in constant touch with my power... because the world's been dying-" I froze as his smile stretched into a grin. "That was your plan all along."

His eyes twinkled, and he put a heavy hand on my shoulder. "I never wanted to kill the Earth. How stupid do you think I am? I needed a plan to make you constantly touching on your power, even as you sleep, to awake your true self."

I smacked his arm away, suddenly seething with red hot anger that made my temples pulse. "All of this has been a lie? Why? Why do you want me to awake this power if our parents tried so hard to keep it hidden?"

"Well dad didn't try too hard, did he? That's why our identities were kept quiet all this time, you and I-" he laughed darkly, "we could rule the world and make all of the High Lords our underlings if we wanted to."

I shook my head, nothing making sense, "but I've met many others, and nobody has commented on my power."

"That's because it's still hidden, locked inside your mind. They won't be able to sense it yet, just how I tend to keep a damper glamour on my own power to make it seem minuscule." He explained, face to face with me, every plane and line seemed like a moulding of my mom and dad, a nearly splitting image of them both.

"You avoided the question. Why do you want to awaken the power?" I breathed quietly.

"Where's the fun in just telling you?"

I had enough. Rage was fluttering through me, something else mixing with it. I felt more than angry, and I wanted to see my own big brother on the edge for once.

"Mom is still alive."

His whole body froze and locked up, and I felt a small satisfaction, even if this might ruin whatever plan The Night Court and my mother were forming.

He blinked, "don't lie like that, little sister, it isn't very nice."

"Can't you smell her scent on me?" I urged.

His nostrils flared, and something like pain shot through his gaze, but he still remained in denial. "That's impossible."

"That's what I thought, but she's been alive this whole time, Alakai, and she wants to see you."

I thought it worked, when his eyebrows turned upwards, his gaze softening into guilt. But he closed his eyes and breathed deeply for a moment, opening them and looking straight at me.

"No."

And then he was gone.

He just disappeared out of sight, like he did that day the inner circle approached him. Part of that power he mentioned? I wouldn't know.

It was always sad, how I felt whenever I saw my big brother. I wanted to hug him, to tell him that whatever he's planning isn't worth it, and I'll love him all the same if he just retracted from this evil persona.

He was so consumed by wanting to change the world, make it a better place, that he didn't realise in doing so he was also making himself into the bad guy.

The scar on my back twinged as I remembered I sacrificed everything for him that day he took me - my life, my mate, a family. I'd do it all over again, but why? Why would I? My mate is supposed to come before anything and anyone, is supposed to outweigh my decisions to always choose him.

I feel so disconnected from Kaleb, almost like the bond was just floating dormant inside of me. Was it because of the fall out we had? We never had a chance to experience what it was truly like to be mates before the had world went to shit.

And now my mate is speaking with the one female I thought I'd never see again.

My own mother.

I shoved my head in a pile of snow.